Don’t be afraid of using public transport. If you have never done so before, know that it is as safe as can be, efficient, clean, easy(ish) to use and cheap.
Oh no, hang on, strike that last one. We’ll come back to that.
In the next couple of blogs we talk about apps and similar, and ticketing.
And we surely don’t need to say this, but there is no smoking on any public transport ever, and this includes vaping. Nor should you be drinking booze or eating food. But do carry water on hot days.
The UK uses Greenwich Mean Time (GMT) as its time system. The whole country uses the same system.
We are one hour behind Paris and five hours ahead of New York.
It’s worth taking a trip to Greenwich by train, bus or DLR, to see the observatory and the meridian and the beautiful parks and buildings. Note that there are big hills to climb and it’s often very busy.
At the end of March the clocks go forward one hour and we use British Summer Time (BST). We are synchronised with Europe but not with the USA, which can go onto daylight saving some weeks earlier.
At the height of the summer it is daylight by 5am and more-or-less still light at 10pm, so you can come out of the theatre and it is still daytime.
Clocks go backwards at the end of October. Again, the USA is different. In the depts of winter it is still dark after 7am and dark again by 4pm.
Here in the UK, if you buy something, it may be subject to a fixed, country-wide sales tax called Value Added Tax (VAT). It’s 20%. Some items don’t have a tax and are exempt or zero rated, but for most things it’s 20%.
We have been to North America and we know the procedure. You go into a shop, find what you want at $50, take it to the sales desk and blow me, they add another 8.26% to the price and it’s more than you thought. But you knew they were going to do that, and you had to stand there looking embarrassed waiting to find out what you’re actually going to pay. You’d need a calculator to work it out, as does the assistant, and it’s never a nice surprise.
And in the next state it’s 11.26%.
So in London you go to Selfridges and find a nice tie for £50, and VAT is 20%, so you dig out your calculator to find what you’re going to pay, or just leave it to the staff. Right?
WRONG.
Here in the UK, and in most of the civilised world, the price on the item is the price you pay. No calculations required, no uncertainty, it’s the price. Your till receipt may show a tax breakdown, but who cares.
It is s simple and easy, and we don’t get why so many people find it hard or complain (Americans, we are thinking of you. It doesn’t matter how much the tax was and how much the base cost of the thing is, the cost of it is what you pay. It’s not complicated. Why would you want it complicated?).
Whether there’s a price ticket, even in a sale, or a barcode you can scan, or a label on the shelf, that’s the price. End.
